Booklet. Janis Joplin, whose rise to fame began in the 1960s, when she became the lead singer of the psychedelic acid rock band ‘Big Brother and the Holding Company’. . She became known as the Queen of Psychedelic Soul. Drugs were said to fuel her creativity, there was something so raw about her, that when she sang it was heart wrenching. She was a troubled genius with a rough voice. Her sheer honesty was relayed with a unique desperation. The beauty and pain in her voice reflected her self-destructive agony. She was one of the first real female rock-stars, and could drink any man under the table. She was soft and feminine, yet also was ‘one of the guys’. Janis broke new ground for women in rock music.